STANDARDS: A SHIFTING LANDSCAPE Data standards are evolving to meet the services-based needs of the modern insurance enterprise. But the influx of many new, ambitious rules could create near-term challenges for IT and the business it serves. Page 18

legislative Tea leaves

12allianz Life’s senior director of government
relations weighs in on
regulatory reform.

doing more with less

25With budgets static, insurers need to bear
business value in mind
when investing in it.

Green Design BoostsInsurers’ Bottom Lines

some of the nation’slargest insurers, includingaflac, allstate and nationwide,are adopting the latest tech-nologies to build and maintainsmaller, more efficient datacenters capable of managinggreater workloads—and pro-ducing big savings.

By Joe McKendrick>>s Torage/da Ta warehousing

Story on page 14

The State of State Affairs

During the sturm anD
drang of the health care debate, it might have been
easy to assume that the regulatory fate of the insurance
industry is determined in
Washington.

While federal regulationno doubt has a profound abil-ity to alter the way insurersconduct business, the moreimmediate legislative con-cerns for the industry areplaying out in state housesacross the country. many ofthe legislative battles, such asefforts to restrict the use ofcredit scoring in underwrit-ing by insurers, are familiar.however, this year, newconflicts borne out of theeconomic crisis arose, and theindustry found itself defend-ing the sanctity of its solvencyfunds as cash-strapped stateslooked to replenish their cof-fers by any available means.With the stakes so high andso much in flux, insurers canill afford to regard these battlesare far from a spectator sport.

By Bill KenealyStory on page 8>> regula Tory ComplianCeBright ideas

28innovators runners up, metLife and the
Phoenix Cos., employ
“thought campaigns”
and Csr technologies
respectively in order
to prosper.

Clearing dead wood

32

how do an upstart and
established P&C insurer
differ when meeting their
document management
system needs?